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Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

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Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#11
post #2

Anyone recommend any Udemy courses, on any topic? My experience is that there are very few where both delivery and content are good. My own recommendations would be Stephen Grider’s React courses, and Chris Croft’s management courses.

Frontend Masters, Egghead and Kent C Dodd’s testing course are all much better if it’s programming (especially web) you’re interested in.

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#12
post #9

I prefer Coursera because I'd rather shell out 40 euros and get a high-quality course from say, Roughgarden at Stanford than pay 15 euros and get something worse than just scanning Youtube. Also Coursera has the whole system of problem sets and programming assignments etc. That said - I'd be happy if someone could show me some decent Udemy courses?

There are some decent ones. Plus Coursera courses can be endless and dry. Udemy has a more... eeh free market model where the best stuff rises to the top and you have more competition. Even the quality of the video/áudio on coursera is occasionally very bad.

Having used both I think they’re just different. Udemy has very neat short courses while Coursera is really long and for some purposes, overly long and detailed.

Decent courses - I did a pretty great drawing course and Unity programming intro courses on Udemy that I really really enjoyed.

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#13
post #8

I've never taken an Udemy class, but am sure there's quality content on the website. However, I've always felt that the way they show their prices is a little fishy. Looking at their offering now, all of the courses are priced between 10 - 13 euros, but each one seems to be "on sale" with the actual price being in the hundreds of euros.

They used to be in the hundreds range, but for a few years now Udemy has been on a constant sale. They used to go up and down from the sale but I haven’t seen them go up anymore for ages.

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#14
post #9

I prefer Coursera because I'd rather shell out 40 euros and get a high-quality course from say, Roughgarden at Stanford than pay 15 euros and get something worse than just scanning Youtube. Also Coursera has the whole system of problem sets and programming assignments etc. That said - I'd be happy if someone could show me some decent Udemy courses?

I think this really depends on what you want you're looking for. I agree with you in so far, that I don't think Udemy is particularly good for providing some solid theoretical (or semi-theoretical) basis for any given programming topic. I usually just use books (or sometimes coursera courses) for that. Udemy courses, however, are pretty good at providing you a decent idea of how to apply knowledge in a given domain to a specific problem without going into too much theoretical detail. To give an example, if you need to get up to speed with React in short time and you just want to see how one would structure or build one, two react projects, simply get a high-rated udemy course on react and you'll get a pretty decent idea. Sure, you could read the docs and then go through some popular github react projects and learn it that way. But I do enjoy just coding along every now and then, and I think it's fairly good at that.

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#15
post #2

Anyone recommend any Udemy courses, on any topic? My experience is that there are very few where both delivery and content are good. My own recommendations would be Stephen Grider’s React courses, and Chris Croft’s management courses.

The official Flutter course was very good, hosted by London App Brewery.

Definitely worth it if you’re looking into cross-platform frontend development.

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#16
post #8

I've never taken an Udemy class, but am sure there's quality content on the website. However, I've always felt that the way they show their prices is a little fishy. Looking at their offering now, all of the courses are priced between 10 - 13 euros, but each one seems to be "on sale" with the actual price being in the hundreds of euros.

I noticed a course this weekend I was a bit interested in. And they said it was 94% off. 150 NOK ($16) instead of 2350 NOK ($250). It was some kind of offer that would expire this weekend, and I had "9 hours left" or something to get it at that price. I actually wrote it down because I had the same feeling of being manipulated.

You made me check, it's still 94% off at the 150 NOK price. Now it's some kind of offer that lasts until Feb 21. Will be interesting to see what the price is in two days..

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#17
post #2

Anyone recommend any Udemy courses, on any topic? My experience is that there are very few where both delivery and content are good. My own recommendations would be Stephen Grider’s React courses, and Chris Croft’s management courses.

I studied Vue and Nuxt through Maximilian Schwarzmüller’s courses, which I liked. He has a very beginner-friendly teaching style, which was right for me at the time but might not work for everyone.

Yes can vouch for Maximilian Schwarzmüller. I have gone through many of his courses. He tends to cover everything from basic to advanced topics. The courses are generally longer also.

This is his YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJbGtTlrDami-tDGPUV9-w

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#18
post #8

I've never taken an Udemy class, but am sure there's quality content on the website. However, I've always felt that the way they show their prices is a little fishy. Looking at their offering now, all of the courses are priced between 10 - 13 euros, but each one seems to be "on sale" with the actual price being in the hundreds of euros.

I have stopped considering Udemy for my online learning exactly for this reason.

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#19
Udemy is selling a dream, more so, than an education.

They mostly target lower income internet natives, who have heard of coding, not enough to do anything dangerous but certainly enough to long for the good money and great perks.

You are not really committed to switching up your life, but a "premium product" at 90% off down to 20$, how could you not give it a try? It's an affordable dream and makes for an easy sale.

Re: Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse

#20
post #8

I've never taken an Udemy class, but am sure there's quality content on the website. However, I've always felt that the way they show their prices is a little fishy. Looking at their offering now, all of the courses are priced between 10 - 13 euros, but each one seems to be "on sale" with the actual price being in the hundreds of euros.

I noticed a course this weekend I was a bit interested in. And they said it was 94% off. 150 NOK ($16) instead of 2350 NOK ($250). It was some kind of offer that would expire this weekend, and I had "9 hours left" or something to get it at that price. I actually wrote it down because I had the same feeling of being manipulated. You made me check, it's still 94% off at the 150 NOK price. Now it's some kind of offer th…

maybe they should understand the point that people who really want to buy courses don't look for sales.

I never bought a technical/educational book in my life till just because it was on sale

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